Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge
Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge (August 25, 3465 - July 27, 3555) was a Dranish politician of the right-wing Rally for the Republic formerly serving as her party's Chairwoman and President of Dranland. Life Gwendolyn Hayforth-Breckinridge was born in 3465 as the daughter of Hamilton Breckinridge, a psychiatrist, and his wife, Samantha Hayforth, who worked as a solicitor. Her father was the son of Julia Breckinridge, a former Prime Minister and influential political figure. After finishing school, she went to study philosophy at the prestigious and elitist First Private Dranian University, an academic bastion of right-wing thought. She was soon attracted to the more radical ideas on the right, particularly anarcho-capitalism, the vision of a stateless society combined with laissez-faire capitalism. Politics In 3422, when talking about her views during an interview on her political ambitions - she was at that time running for Parliament for the RFR - she criticized her party's stance on defense openly and established an early reputation as a party rebel: "Dranland should begin to de-militarize and stay out of international skirmish completely. By meddling with the affairs of other nations or criticizing their actions, we risk that aggression turns at us despite not being affected by the particular conflict in the first place. If we adhered to the principle of non-intervention, there wouldn't be a need for storing nukes and assault weapons at all." Hayforth-Breckinridge's parliamentary bid was successful, but for many years she was stuck on the backbenches due to her radical views. This started to change when, under Masuhiro Ozawa, the party started to become more isolationist, and she was appointed foreign affairs spokeswoman. She was one of the architects of the Neutrality Doctrine in 3512, which enshrined non-interventionist policy into law. In the same years, she ran for RFR Chairperson and took an early lead after having revised her platform to a more moderate agenda. She was elected with 53% in the runoff, defeating Thomas Trelawney. Soon after her election, she pushed the RFR hard to the right, and thus contributed to the collapse of the centre-right alliance with Encrujicada Democrática and Virtuous Alliance Dranland, of which she said: "(...) this coalition was highly successful in all the fields it has been targeting, and the past decade was a glorious era of deregulation, less taxation and a peaceful foreign policy. However, now that we have achieved pretty much everything we could agree on, including a marvelous neutrality doctrine, we must proceed to other areas that exceed the sphere of compromise. We won't pass tuition reform or educational privatization within the coalition, so we need to stand on our own feet again. It's time to focus on ambitious libertarian reforms again." As the ED also switched leaders and spoke out against the coalition, parties began lining up for the 3514 general election, and soon a cluttered field of parties and candidates emerged. Hayforth-Breckinridge was chosen as presidential nominee for the RFR and earned early support from the ED (which did not endorse her, but would back her in a runoff should its own candidate lose) and the PP. She appointed her former rival Thomas Trelawney as chief campaign officer, who ran a fiery campaign and frequently exchanged jibes with rival parties, especially DPP and DAL. During her campaign, she focused on pledges such as education privatization and tuition reform through a voucher and loans system or halving the corporation tax. However, she also embraced controversial positions such as the semi-privatization of the military or ending restrictions on weapon exports, which was perceived by opponents as pandering to the right-wing populist The Good, whose endorsement she earned. In the end, she won the presidential election in the runoff with 56% against Sarah Goodwin (UDA), the main leftist contender. The RFR also performed well in the parliamentary election, only losing slightly and retaining its second place despite a cluttered field on the right. It also won two governorships, one in its traditional stronghold Magadonia, and, for the first time in over 200 years, in traditionally left-wing Valdor. She then formed a majority right-wing coalition with TG, ED and PP, which went on to propose large-scale reforms such as the privatization of the military through subcontraction of services, which, by only receiving the support of TG and RFR, was rejected by Parliament. However, the education reform pushed for by Takeshi Shimoto succeeded, and resulted in the privatization of public higher education institutions and the introduction of a loans system instead of universal tuition subsidization. The Hayforth-Breckinridge administration also accomplished getting the government out of marriage contracts altogether, making it an entirely private institution. Her government was at times heavily criticized by the opposition parties. KDF leader Alejandro Xi Marcelino even refused to recognize its legitimacy, saying "we will never recognize a president that permits the entrance of militant xenophobes into the leadership of this nation. A president that does that, is not our president." Later on, when Hayforth-Breckinridge sought to replace DAZ High Councillor Kang Min-hyuk with TG politician Pandora Fahramar, the incumbent simply refused to stand down and instead occupied the building. In late 3516, her administration was put at the brink of collapse when The Good went defunct, leaving the coalition without a parliamentary majority. Although she managed to pass a minority cabinet soon afterwards, this did not last long either as the ED also dissolved. Thus, on April 4, 3517, she announced that she would not seek re-election and suggested that early elections would be held soon: "Unfortunately, the current political landscape is very unreceptive to the agenda I wanted to implement, and while I do believe that my administration has made a difference by ending the free-for-all higher education system with a more responsible privatized scheme, I will not seek another term and propose to dissolve Parliament in the near future, seeing that my support base has eroded and apparently parts of the opposition are unable to conduct professional parliamentary business, which would be crucial now that so many seats have gone vacant." In the subsequent elections, Hayforth-Breckinridge's RFR, with its nominee Bernard Hammersmith lost control of the presidency, although only narrowly. Sarah Goodwin became her successor. Category:RFR politicians Category:Dranian people